Land Law Examiner
What you'd do
As a Land Law Examiner you will provide land law examining and adjudication for a variety of difficult local lands and/or mineral cases. There are 2 locations for this position; Sacramento, CA has 2 vacancies and Alturas, CA has 1 vacancy. However, the Alturas, CA location is being remodeled so Cedarville, CA is the temporary duty location.
Major duties
The duties below are at the full performance level. Some of the major duties you will perform include but are not limited to the following: Review and process the full range of lands and minerals cases for accuracy and completeness. Review and make determinations on applications for rights-of ways for oil and gas pipelines, transmission line, roads, trails, and highways. Develop facts and evidence and applies appropriate laws and policies for specific cases. Prepare necessary leases, permits, grants, and other documents involving appropriate provisions as to royalty and other payments, limitations, and stipulations. Research Bureau of Land Management and other land records to determine land ownership, types of ownership, rights, encumbrances, withdrawals, restrictions, and other land status for case processing or public inquiries. Utilize data, systems and applications to collect, enter, manipulate, update and maintain data according to prescribed Bureau and program standards. Duties will be developmental in nature when filled below the full performance level.
What you need to qualify
All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 08/12/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Competitive candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements as defined in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the work schedule requirement as the service dates will be reflected. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. To qualify for this position at the GS-05 grade level: Experience: To qualify, you must possess at least three years of general experience with one year equivalent to the GS-04 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). General experience is defined as demonstrated experience: Experience that provided a familiarity with real property laws and legal land descriptions, land titles, tract maps, and legal documents, or other experience that involved explanation, application, or interpretation of laws, regulations, policies, etc. Such experience may have been gained in positions such as law clerk, claims examiner, contact representative, or other work dealing with laws, rules, regulations, procedures, etc. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- Education: A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree in any field from an accredited college or university. You must include transcripts. -OR- Combination of education and experience as listed above. You must include hours per week and transcripts. To qualify for this position at the GS-07 grade level: Experience: To qualify, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-05 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: Reviewing routine lands, mining, or mineral leasing applications, claims, or legal documents; Answering inquiries from the public or internal customers regarding public land laws and regulations; Preparing routine correspondence; and Using basic computer and software applications to handle data. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- Education: Successful completion of at least one full year of graduate level education. This includes or supplemented by 12 semester hours of course work related to the administration of land laws. Examples: include course work in land surveying, cartography, land use law, real estate law, land appraising, land use planning, water rights, mining laws, or legal instrument review and interpretation. You must include transcripts. -OR- Combination of education and experience as listed above. You must include hours per week and transcripts. -OR- Superior Academic Achievement (SAA): Successfully completed a bachelor's degree that included or was supplemented by 12 semester hours of course work related to the administration of land laws. Examples include course work in land surveying, cartography, land use law, real estate law, land appraising, land use planning, water rights, mining laws, or legal instrument review and interpretation. AND to be considered for SAA you must meet one of the following: (1) Class Standing: rank in the upper 3rd of the graduating class in the college, university, or major subdivision, based on the completed courses; OR (2) Grad-Point Average (GPA): earn a GPA of (a) 3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B" or better) based on 4 years of education, or based on courses completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum -or- (b) 3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B" or better) based on the average of the required courses completed in the major field, or the required courses completed during the final two years. Note: GPA will be rounded to the one decimal place, for example, 2.95 = 3.0, 2.94 = 2.9; OR (3) Membership in a National Scholastic Honor Society. To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level: Experience: To qualify, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: Processing or adjudicating basic lands and minerals cases; Researching and reviewing legal land descriptions and ownership status from various map and records sources; Using a variety of computer and software applications to handle data; and Communicating effectively with internal and external customers on routine topics. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- Education: Successful completion of at least a Master's or equivalent graduate degree or two full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D in a field of study such as land surveying, cartography, land use law, real estate law, land appraising, land use planning, water rights, mining laws, or legal instrument review and interpretation. You must include transcripts. -OR- Combination of education and experience as listed above. You must include hours per week and transcripts. Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Before you apply
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